Red Cross seeks community emergency volunteer taskforce

A charity is seeking hundreds of volunteers willing to drop everything and help out if their community is hit by an emergency.

The British Red Cross in Scotland wants to form a practical taskforce of people able to carry out jobs such as filling sandbags and sorting food for others.

It has launched a campaign to recruit community reserve volunteers able to jump into action in emergencies such as flooding or power cuts caused by heavy snow.

Simon Lewis, head of crisis response for the Red Cross, said: “We’ve seen through the sad events of this year, including the Manchester Arena and London Bridge attacks and the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the extraordinary levels of compassion shown by ordinary people from local communities when a crisis hits.

“It shows you don’t need special skills to help others. Small acts of kindness, and coming together as a team, can make a huge difference.

“This project is a way of harnessing the good will and kindness of the public for future emergencies, by signing people up in advance.

“We recognise people have busy lives and can’t always commit to volunteering all year round.

“We would only call upon people at times of major local crisis, which hopefully won’t happen often, but when they do, and extra help is needed, people will have the opportunity to make a big difference.”

Would-be volunteers can sign up online at www.redcross.org. uk/reserves by watching a video, answering questions and registering their details.

Volunteers would be called out by text message.